Interact with the security community
CanSecWest, the world's most advanced conference focusing on applied digital security, is about bringing the industry luminaries together in a relaxed environment which promotes collaboration and social networking. The conference lasts for three days and features a single track of thought provoking presentations, each prepared by an experienced professional and talented educator who is at the cutting edge of his or her field. We give preference to new and innovative material, highlighting important, emergent technologies, techniques, or best industry practices.
The conference is single track, with one hour presentations over the duration beginning at 9:00 a.m. The registration fee includes the catered meals, and there will be a vendor display and lounge/eating area, where wireless internet access will be available (as well as in the speaking theater). The conference discount hotel room booking system can be found here.
2010-02-24-00:42:10-Post-CanSecWest Whistler Expedition Plans Finalized
You've been watching it on TV for the Olympics, and now you can go check it out yourself. Just after the last of the Olympics and Paralympics events finish, our expedition of infosec folks will be invading Whistler. We have booked 5 cabins with a total of 31 beds for time periods ranging from 2 nights to 5 nights starting on March 26th. Two cabins are adjacent to each other in the village proper, 600m from the Blackcomb lift (next to the Four Seasons hotel). The remaining three are ski-in/ski-out to Creekside in the swank Taluswood complex. We will again be establishing our traditional Whistler base camp at the Eagle's Nest and hosting a lavish feast there and in the adjacent cabin on Saturday night, to be prepared again by Chef Matt Davis, and his assisting elves (ask those who attended last year if our use of the description "lavish feast" is appropriate, we are confident they will rant and rave).
All of the cabins feature 4-6 separate sleeping areas, and 3-5 separate bathrooms. Each has 1-2 private decks, fireplaces, and BBQs as well as comfortable common spaces, large kitchens, and dining areas (which inevitably become laptop central with this crowd) to relax and socialize in. You can easily find a secluded spot to get some peace and quiet in the fresh mountain air or mingle with the international guests in the common spaces (at last count we had attendees from 14 countries on the trip last year). Three of the cabins have private hot tubs, and one is adjacent to the Taluswood pool complex. All of the cabins have no-charge Internet, TVs and DVDs as well as laundry facilities (The Eagle's Nest also has a pool table). Like last year, the elves will head up early and pre-stock the cabin fridges with food and some quantities of booze. Prices may vary slightly by cabin and length of stay but expect to pay around CAD$190/night (all in, incl. tax, cost is lower for couples sharing bed) which also includes the invite to our Saturday gathering. We will be arranging car pools for those without transportation for folks going up to Whistler after conference tear-down on Friday @ 6 p.m. Preference to vehicles participating in car pooling will be given at the limited garage and cabin adjacent parking spaces. There will be skiers and boarders of all levels including first time beginners, so it shouldn't be a problem to find someone of comparable level to buddy up with on the slopes. Like in previous years (this is our fifth year of formal organized post-conf expeditions, and each year has gotten better), there will likely be a group going snowmobiling (which will further sub-divide based on experience level) and there are often many who go and skip the snow-sports alltogether to focus on their apres-ski :-) and enjoying Whistler's many fine shopping and dining opportunities (Did we mention the lavish feast yet? :-).
You might be able to find accomodation for less - when we looked last night, there were a few choices for slightly less ($10-20 with tax factored in), but the majority of properties had one bedrooms ranging from $180-$300 before tax with some going as high as $400 and $500, not including the $2700/night suites at the Four Seasons and such. But we guarantee that none of them will be as much fun and have so many things taken care of for you as going with our group (who else would bring a Makerbot Cupcake CNC for folks to play with to a ski trip?). If you are interested, send some email to whistler2010@cansecwest.com with your planned travel dates and Yuriko will contact you to get credit card information from you to reserve a spot. First come, first served. After all the spots fill up we may try to find a spot and/or a good deal for you on hotels, but we can't guarantee availability after our cabins are fully reserved. The majority of spaces are for the weekend with Sunday or Monday departure back to Vancouver, but we have two large cabins until the following Wednesday, and some folks are staying for a full week after, so we can probably co-ordinate any length of stay you desire. This expedition is not restricted to CanSecWest attendees, you may invite guests along.
2010-02-16-16:32:48-PWN2OWN Announcement
Today Tipping Point ZDI announced their PWN2OWN 2010 prizes and challenges - with awards totaling more than $100,000 USD. Their announcement can be found on the DVLabs Blog.
$40,000 of prizes are allocated for the Browser exploitation challenge, which will feature a gradually expanding attack surface over the three days of the competition during the conference consisting of progressively less operating system exploit mitigations consiting of older operating system versions (Windows 7, Vista, and XP; Snow Leopard, Leopard). The four browser targets for the challenge are:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (Version 8 on Windows 7, Version 7 on Vista and XP)
- Mozilla Firefox 3
- Google Chrome 4
- Apple Safari 4
$60,000 of prizes are allocated to the mobile challenge, which is in itself a statement about the import and priority we expect mobile platform security to play in our future computing environment. The four mobile targets were selected by market share and importance to be:
- Apple iPhone
- RIM Blackberry
- Nokia Symbian
- Google Android
Some specific target models are listed on the TippingPoint blog, but a final detailed hardware platform list will be published shortly. As in previous years contestants will be able to keep the laptop targets and mobile phones they successfully compromise. Also like in previous years, compromise to get the prizes will require a real demonstration of a practical attack in a real-world scenario. A detailed list of the hardware prizes will also follow shortly. This year we would like to thank COSEINC for their sponsorship of the hardware prizes.
For 2010 the rules were discussed and selected by a committee of vendors, previous contestants, and noted technical advisors. We would especially like to thank RIM, Google, and Microsoft for their participation, sponsorship, and input to the PWN2OWN rules and contest proceedings.
Watch this space for more exciting information and additional announcements regarding this year's no doubt to be eventful PWN2OWN challenge. Participation in the contest is limited to CanSecWest conference attendees, and additional stipulations are listed on the TippingPoint site.
2010-02-06-18:02:03-Hotel Reservation Link Fixed
The link above is operational. Version control systems work better when everyone checks their changes in. ;-P
2010-02-06-16:42:27-Speakers List Being Updated
The current speakers list is being updated on the Speakers page tab. We are aware that the hotel registration link is apparently non-functional and we are investigating. Please stand by, or call / book-via-internet the hotel directly in the interim, the Sheraton Wall Center.
2010-02-04-00:00:00 PWN2OWN 2010 Preliminary Announcement
We will be having PWN2OWN again this year. There will be more prizes than ever (and more sponsors), our thanks to Tipping Point ZDI for supporting it again. There will be a browser contest, and a mobile device contest, similar to last year's challenges. We are drafting up the rules with our new advisory board that Aaron Portnoy has set up, and will be publishing it in the near future. Polish up those exploits, because you'll be able to use them to get fame, glory and nifty/valuable prizes again jsut like previous years...
For media interested in being on our announcement list for the contest please contact us via email and we will arrange to get you the rules and other details as soonas they are finalized. Actually, that also applies to interested competitors too. secwest10 [at] cansecwest.com
